The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme celebrated it’s 10th birthday last week with special guest Nicola Sturgeon.
The First Minister, who initially helped launch the programme in Scotland ten years ago, attended the event in the Edinburgh Corn Exchange to meet many of the mothers and staff who she first met back then.
The First Minister said: “The Family Nurse Partnership is really close to my heart. We know that for any woman becoming a mum is a life changing experience but for young, first time, mums it can present particular challenges and the whole point of the Family Nursing Partnership is about helping young mums to overcome those challenges.
“It really helps mums and dads to give their children the best start in life and in my opinion it’s probably the best investment we can make as a society.”
FNP focuses on helping young, first time, mothers and their families to provide responsive, sensitive and positive parenting. It also helps them to develop self-efficacy to both identify and achieve their future goals.
Laura Wilson, 26, from Edinburgh, who was one of the first mothers to join the programme back in 2010 said: “Pam, my first Family Nurse, was willing to let me take things at my own pace and encouraged me to bond with the baby.
“Shortly after Caitlin was born I changed Family Nurses to Trudy, but honestly she was so nice and couldn’t have done a better job.
“She helped me to have the confidence to get out of an unhealthy relationship, which allowed me to be happier and to be a better parent.
“She also saw potential in me to help other parents in the community to breast feed. I received training and that allowed me to apply for my first job in the NHS as a clinical support worker and I’ve been there for six years now and I’m currently studying towards a HNC in care.”
In 2010 NHS Lothian became the first health board to provide this service in Scotland. In March 2015, Nicola Sturgeon announced Edinburgh city (as part of NHS Lothian) had been formally recognised as the first city in the world to have achieved delivery of a concurrent FNP service to all eligible clients. Since then the service has expanded to cover all of Lothian.
Val Alexander, the original FNP Supervisor for NHS Lothian, said: “Our first clients showed us that they wanted to become the best mums they could be for their children. Last night they evidenced that they had achieved their goal. The first children of FNP now age 8-9 years presented as happy, confident and inspiring to all who attended.”
The programme was first developed 40 years ago in the United States of America by Professor David Olds and the University of Colorado. It has shown to improve pregnancy and health behaviours, reduce child abuse and neglect, increase maternal employment and economic self-sufficiency and reduce closely spaced subsequent pregnancies.
Since the initial introduction in Scotland the programme has continued to grow; for example the service was initially offered to mothers 19 years of age and younger where now it supports mothers from 21 years of age and younger. From 2015 NHS Lothian has supported NHS Borders to implement the FNP programme and in 2019 similar arrangements were put in place to include NHS Dumfries & Galloway.
Dorothy-Ann Timoney, FNP Supervisor, said: “We remain proud of our FNP programme in Lothian and as we strengthen and focus on quality improvement for our service we continue to value the ongoing feedback from the staff, clients and their families.”
25
0
20
